Reckless FaithExemplo

I have a large family of biological, adopted, and foster children. We are a mess of people who love and are committed to each other. Two of those people are our foster daughters, sisters we loved and battled for. We persevered through one of them going through a rebellious adolescence and who finally came home emotionally and spiritually several years ago.

One Sunday we sat in church in my Mexican neighborhood. The service finished and people lingered at the back before heading to their taco stands for lunch. “Beth, do you have a minute?” I turned to see a visiting guest, Mark, waiting.

“Of course. What’s going on?”

He told me about his mother, Barbara—a woman I had never met, but who I remembered people mentioning as an intercessory prayer warrior. This was running through my mind, when Mark said , “She passed away this last year.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Someone a couple of years ago gifted her a painting from one of your fundraising banquets.”

I remembered. A girl had wanted to use her art skills for orphan care advocacy. She asked for a stack of photographs to translate into paintings we could auction off.

Mark continued, “Someone bought one for my mom and it hung in her house, where she prayed for the two children in the painting regularly. At the end of her life, she told me she wanted me to have the painting so I could pray for the children. Since she passed, I’ve been praying, but I don’t have my mom’s gifts. I find myself saying the same thing. So, I was hoping . . .” He paused, a pleading look on his face. “I took a picture of the painting for you to look at. Could you give me some background on the kids, so I can pray more specifically?”

I panicked. Lord, what if I don’t recognize them? I nodded, “Show me the picture.”

Immediately, tears filled my eyes, which were full of recognition. “It’s my foster daughters, Mark..”

He looked as wide-eyed as I did.

“Do you realize your mama co-labored with us in the salvation of these girls’ souls? The Great Shepherd loves them so much, that He enlisted a prayer warrior from Ohio?”

I recounted for him the last couple years, specifically how God wooed the oldest to Himself the year prior. We looked at each other and I exclaimed, “Now back to your original question, get out your pen and paper. I have a long list of things for you to pray!”